Saying goodbye to a friend

This past week has been relatively somber. Last Monday, I received a text from my friend Lauren saying that our friend and former college teammate, Matt, had passed away suddenly. Whoa - talk about the wind just being knocked out of you. Immediately, there was a flurry of messaging to former teammates and friends and all of us just shocked. It really got me thinking about when was the last time I actually talked to Matt? I am pretty sure it was the last alumni meet I went to a few years ago. Am I really that horrible at keeping touch with people? I mean it feels like just yesterday that I saw a lot of you, but in reality its been years in some cases and the only way I "keep in touch" is through facebook. Regardless, this has been a wake up call that anything can happen and its important to let people know you care.

This going to be a short post, but I want to leave you all with a memory I have of Matt. We were up in Utah for our BYU/Utah duel meet weekend and I was pretty sick with bronchitis (I probably should have stayed home). I had swum like complete crap at BYU the day before and was feeling particularly bad at breakfast the next morning before the Utah meet. Out of no where, Matt came up to sit with me with a cup of straight black coffee in is hand and said "drink this, it will help." I don't necessarily know if the coffee helped since I was still not swimming great, but the kindness Matt showed me that morning really helped my attitude. The funny thing is that the day before I found out he died, I thought of this memory. All these years, and that is one of the memories that stands out most from my years at UNLV. It really shows how much one person's kindness can impact a another. I think Matt was really one of those special people that can do that. Rest in peace Matt. The photo below shows his championship rings. For some reason this really just got to me.